Monday, August 29, 2011

Efficiency Breeds Profits

The summer is over and the kids are back in school. That means life can get back to normal -- or at least as normal as it can get for me.

The good news is that most everyone is in the same state of mind. Suddenly business will start flowing again as decision makers get back from last minute summer vacations. New projects will begin and the course of regular business will resume after the summer slowdown.

However, this year poses some challenges. Fears of a double dip recession will force many small businesses to hold onto cash like Ebenezer Scrooge. Ironically, this is the exact behavior that causes recessions in the first place. Coincidentally, it's probably the worst strategy to weather an economic downturn.

When the economy slows down, smart businesses take the opportunity to invest in efficiency.

Dollars spent on making your business work smarter, faster and cheaper always reap enormous rewards when the economy picks up again. Like the great industrialist Andrew Carnegie used to say: you can't control the economy but you can control costs. When business is booming, you focus on sales and delivery. Cost control is less of a factor because you're making plenty of money. It's during lean times that it makes sense to pinch every penny until it screams.

The single greatest tool for improving efficiency is the smart application of technology. In many cases, you already have all the tech you need to get dramatic improvements. It's just a matter of applying those tools in smarter ways. We just helped one of our customers reduce the amount of time it took them to close their monthly financials from 4 hours down to 10 minutes by simply reconfiguring one of their existing servers. Small changes can produce enormous results.

Now that the summer is behind us, it's time to get back to work. Since the economic sun isn't shining as brightly as we might hope, now is the time to get your business as efficient as possible. Every penny you trim off your costs goes directly into profits. If you work smarter, you will reap greater rewards.